A dragon, flying by, maw open shooting forth a jet of flame, is probably the most scary thing in middle earth (maybe excepting Nazgul).
Dragon's Terror - Hazard - Short-event Dark enchantment. Playable on a Dragon or Drake hazard creature attack before the strikes are assigned. For each card you discard from your hand when Dragon's Terror is declared, target one non-Wizard character of your choice in the defending company and make a roll (or draw a #) -- add +2 for a Dragon attack. If the result is greater than the character's mind, the character taps. Each card discarded in this fashion counts as one against the company's hazard limit.
Like it's "companion" card, Words of Power and Terror, this card sounds better than it is (I'll play SMAUG with DRAGON'S TERROR! Bwa ha ha ha!). This can have a slight psychological advantage, but not much to make a fuss over. As to the actual text, first, it's a Dark enchantment, which means Adamant Helmet cancels it and it will probably have some helpers in Dark Minions.
Second, it only helps dragons and drakes (and dragons quite a bit more). Thus it's only useful in a deck of that sort. Second, in order for this card to take effect, you must use up at least three hazards (one for the creature, one for this, and at least one discard). For that cost, the effect isn't all that spiffy. You can make a non-wizard character try to roll above his mind. If we assume a dragon attack, it automatically taps characters with 3 or less mind, has a 35/36 chance of tapping someone with 4, 11/12 for 5, 5/6 for 6, 13/18 for 7, 7/12 for 8, 5/12 for 9, and 5/18 for Elrond (I'm almost positive those are correct, but I just did them off the top of my head).
Those are pretty good odds for most characters, but usually the ones you want to tap have high minds anyway. What this does do is to prevent them from assigning a wimpy one-minder to sacrifice himself to the mighty worm. At the cost of one card from your hand for each character to tap. Another use is to tap characters so they can't tap in assistance, but for 2 hazards and 2 cards from your hand you could play, say, Prowess of Age and Passion of Wrath (or two PoAs) for a better bonus. This doesn't even work on tapping all of the scouts, because they can just tap in response and play a concealment.
Also, for 2 hazards you could tap at least two characters with maybe a Slayer and a Cave-drake or some other pair of creatures to soften up the company for Scatha's dinner.
If you were really desperate, you could use this card to cycle faster, but this card usually just takes up space that could be saved for other cards which do the same job almost better and more versatilely.
| Ratings for Dragon's Terror: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 3.0 |
| Strider: | 4.0 |
| Wormtongue: | 5.0 |
| Frodo: | 6.5 |
| Gandalf: | 5.0 |
| Legolas: | 4.0 |
| Eonwe: | 4.0 |
| Samwise: | 7.6 |
| Smaug: | 3.0 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 6.5 |
| Aveage: | 4.9 |